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Beamish: The Living Museum of the North

Durham

Society , Regeneration, Intellectual life

Beamish opened to the public in 1972 - England’s first regional open-air museum.

A living, working museum, it showcases life in North East England around the pivotal dates of 1825 and 1913 - the zenith of the Region’s great period of industrialisation and time of transition from a rural society.

Today Beamish is a nationally-recognised tourist attraction pioneering ways of engaging the public with living history, including costumed interpreters and buildings relocated from elsewhere in the Region and reconstructed on the 300 acre site.

Beamish stands as a representation of two important periods in North East history and as an example of the Region’s creative use of heritage for modern redevelopment.